abstract

For too long Information and Communications Technologies (or ICTs) have been lazily portrayed as means to simply escape into a parallel world - to withdraw from the body, or the city, in some utopian, or dystopian, stampede online. Such perspectives deny the fact that the so-called 'information society' is an increasingly urban society. They ignore the ways in which new technologies now mediate every aspect of everyday urban life. And they obscure a key question: how do the multifaceted realities of city regions interrelate in practice with new technologies in different ways in different places.

The Cybercities Reader explores this question. It is the most comprehensive, international and interdisciplinary analysis yet of the relationships between cities, urban life and new technologies. The book incorporates:

- Thirty-one of the best published writings in the field with thirty-two specially commissioned pieces.- The work of writers from thirteen nations and twelve disciplines.- Detailed discussions of cybercity history, theory, economic processes, mobilities, physical forms, social and cultural worlds, digital divides, public domains, strategies, politics and futures.- Analyses of postmodern technoculture, virtual reality and the body, global city economies, urban surveillance, 'intelligent' transportation, e-commerce, teleworking, community informatics, digital architecture, urban technology strategies, and the role of cities and new technologies in the 'war on terrorism'.- Detailed case studies of 'virtual cities' in Amsterdam, Internet cabins in Lima, back offices in Jamaica, 'smart' highways in Melbourne, technopoles in New York, mobiles in Helsinki, e-commerce convenience stores in Tokyo, high-tech business parks in Bangalore, public spaces in Mexico City, and urban ICT strategies in Kuala Lumpur, California and Singapore.- Editor's introductions, guides to further reading for each theme and piece.- Over fifty plates, tables, and diagrams.

The Cybercities Reader is essential reading for anyone interested in how cities and new technologies are helping to remake each other at the start of this quintessentially urban digital century.